Faith or Foolishness

I had an interesting conversation with a co-worker this past week. We happened upon a discussion of aunts in our families, both married to men who fought in WWII. Both having to endure the frightening separation from the men they loved. Both strong and enigmatic women, certainly apprehensive and unsure of their futures, both unafraid to face them.

In my friend’s case, her aunt had married a mere two weeks after meeting her future husband. He had to ship out to the Pacific just weeks after they married, days after he deposited his new bride with his parents, in another state. In, by all accounts, a figurative other world.

This young woman, a southern lady, adapted to life in the northeast. She adapted to life as a woman newly married, newly separated from a husband who just happened to be halfway across the world, fighting in a war. Their communication was nothing more than an occasional letter. Affirmations of love and a promise for a lifetime together, contained on onion skin pages, written in the shaky hand of a 20 year old Navy signalman.

We marveled at how they shaped their marriage in this way, through letters, a marriage that lasted 55 years. My coworker, a woman who has never been married, commented on the foolishness and folly of her aunt. The foolishness of marrying a man, two weeks after she met him, knowing that he was going off to war. In fact, her comment was…what was she thinking?

What was she thinking? She wasn’t. It wasn’t thought that propelled her into this situation but faith. Faith in this young man, faith in herself and faith in their future.

Later I thought about that conversation, thought about my coworker’s aunt. I thought about her faith and my own faith. I thought about what it’s like to have faith in someone else, someone you hardly know. I thought about the fact that time spent together does not guarantee knowledge in and of a person. Sometimes you cannot truly know a person even after twenty years together. Sometimes you can truly know a person after two weeks.

Either you know them or you don’t.
It’s faith.

Indeed.